Phylogeny and biogeography of the Asian trogons (Aves: Trogoniformes) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences Peter A. Hosner a,⇑ , Frederick H. Sheldon b , Haw Chuan Lim b , Robert G. Moyle a a Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66046, USA b Department of Biological Sciences and Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA article info Article history: Received 26 May 2010 Revised 8 September 2010 Accepted 9 September 2010 Available online 19 September 2010 Keywords: Harpactes Apalharpactes Trogon Biogeography Phylogeny Asia abstract We present the first species-level molecular phylogenetic hypothesis for the Asian trogons, using DNA sequences of multiple mitochondrial and nuclear loci, and Bayesian and maximum likelihood tree recon- struction methods. The two genera of Asian trogons, Harpactes and Apalharpactes, are distantly related to each other. Within the widespread Southeast Asian genus Harpactes, we recovered three species groups: (1) H. oreskios; (2) H. orrhophaeus and H. duvaucelii; and (3) a clade of the seven large-bodied species. Short internal branch lengths link species in the large-bodied group, suggesting rapid diversification. Apalharpactes, which is currently restricted to the montane forests of Sumatra and Java, appears to be a relictual lineage distantly related to all other trogons. Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses indi- cate Apalharpactes is sister to the African genus Apaloderma, although this result was not strongly sup- ported. Overall, the extant Asian trogon species appear to have diversified prior to the Pleistocene, based on large pair-wise mitochondrial divergences between taxa. Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Asian trogons (Harpactes and Apalharpactes) comprise 12 species that inhabit forests throughout the southern Asian main- land and the Greater Sunda and Philippine islands (Collar, 2001). Diversity reaches a peak in Sundaland (the islands and mainland of the Sunda continental shelf); seven species occur on Sumatra and six each on Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. Surprisingly, Java, with an avifauna very similar to Sumatra and Borneo, has only two species of trogons, and only a single species has colonized the oce- anic Philippine Islands. No trogons are present on the Sundaic is- land of Palawan, and no trogons have succeeded in colonizing islands east of Wallace’s Line. North of Sundaland diversity is re- duced; two species are widespread over Indochina north of the Isthmus of Kra, one species is found in montane forests along the southern Himalayan massif, and a single species is found in Sri Lan- ka and the Eastern and Western Ghats of India. Trogons are thought to be poor dispersers, and this view is supported by their distribution in Southeast Asia, which is largely confined to islands that have been connected in the recent past by rainforest corridors (Hall, 1998; Voris, 2000). Little has been published on Harpactes or Apalharpactes ecology, diet, breeding behavior, or seasonal movements beyond very basic natural history observations, which appear similar in all species (Collar, 2001). Like other trogonids, Harpactes and Apalharpactes are still-hunting predators that wait motionless on a branch until prey is spotted. Diet is variable and includes insects, fruit, and small vertebrates that will fit within their large gape. The leg muscles are so reduced that they cannot walk, or even turn around on a perch without using their wings. Nesting occurs in tree cavities that are self-excavated or reused from other bird species, and care is bipa- rental. Species are thought to be largely sedentary, although some high-elevation species may move seasonally and individual birds have been found well away from forest (Sheldon et al., 2009a). 1.1. Taxonomic history Traditionally all species of Asian trogons have been included in the genus Harpactes, although recent treatments have favored placement of two species in a separate genus, Apalharpactes (Collar, 2001; Collar and van Balen, 2002; Gill and Donsker, 2010). These Apalharpactes species are endemic to montane forests of Sumatra and Java, and they differ from Harpactes in having iridescent green plumage and bare patches of facial skin more similar to those of Apaloderma trogons of Africa than to Harpactes. The song of Apalhar- pactes rienwardtii is unknown, but the song of A. mackloti consists of a high-pitched whistle ‘‘wiwi whéeere-lu” that is unique, distinc- tive, and easily distinguished from the stereotypic repeated series of single whistles of Harpactes species (Collar, 2001; Collar and van Balen, 2002). Although Asian trogons have long been considered monophyletic based on geography (Collar, 2001; Sibley and Monroe, 1990), the complete set of Asian species has never 1055-7903/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.09.008 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: hosner@ku.edu (P.A. Hosner). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 57 (2010) 1219–1225 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ympev